Kjell Magne Yri (born 5 November 1943) is a Norwegian priest, linguist and translator. He hails from

Hareid Hareid is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Hareid. The other main population centers are Brandal and Hjørungavåg. The municipality is situ ...

. He was interested in linguistics at an early age; during Norwegian classes in secondary school he read books in Greek and

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

. During his spare time he read Swahili. He combined the language interest with religious studies after a friend encouraged him to become a bible translator, eventually graduating from the

MF Norwegian School of Theology MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society ( no, MF vitenskapelig høyskole for teologi, religion og samfunn), formerly the Free Faculty of Theology ( no, Det teologiske menighetsfakultet) and MF Norwegian School of Theology, is an accr ...

with the

cand.theol. Candidatus theologiæ (male), Candidata theologiæ (female), abbreviated cand. theol. is an academic degree with a long tradition, awarded after a six-year higher education in theology in Iceland, Denmark, and Norway. In Norway, the title has re ...

degree in 1970. He also minored in Greek at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

, as well as studying

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. He was eventually given an assignment to translate the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

for the Norwegian Lutheran Mission, who found the official Norwegian translation too

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

. He was occupied with this translation from 1968 to 1973. In 1973 he travelled with his family to work as a priest in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. He learned both the

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

and

Oromo language Oromo ( or ; Oromo: ''Afaan Oromoo''), in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla (a name with a pejorative meaning and therefore rejected by the Oromo people), is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushiti ...

s, and was later sent to work in the

Sidama Zone The Sidama Region (Sidama: Sidaamu Qoqqowo; ) is a regional state in southern Ethiopia. It was formed on 18 June 2020 from the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) and transformation of the Sidama Zone after a 98.52% vote ...

. While staying here, he translated the New Testament into Sidamo. It took twelve years, and he was finished in 1988. In 1989 Yri reached what he describes as a "crossroads" in his life. He left the Norwegian Lutheran Mission, and took up studies again at the University of Oslo. He ultimately took the

dr.philos. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

degree in 1996, and in 2000 he was appointed as an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

. From 2002 to 2007 he conducted a large research project on languages in Ethiopia. His marriage broke down in 1989, but he later remarried, this time to a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an linguist. This prompted Yri to learn Spanish, and to attempt to learn

Mapudungun Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

. Yri resides in Nittedal, and from 1998 to 2002 he was the local church organist there.

Publications by Yri

*Mitike, Nigussie Meshesha, and Kjell Magne Yri. "socio-political discourse and communication in sidaama folk media." ''Oslo Studies in Language'' 8.1 (2017). *Yri, Kjell Magne. 2016. School Grammars with Everyday Vocabulary. Binyam Sisay Mendisu & Janne Bondi Johannessen (eds.) ''Multilingual Ethiopia: Linguistic Challenges and Capacity Building Efforts'', pp. 319–338. Oslo: University of Oslo. *Yri, Kjell Magne. My father taught me how to cry, but now I have forgotten: the semantics of religious concepts with an emphasis on meaning, interpretation and translatability. Universitetsforlaget, 1998. *Yri, Kjell Magne. "Orthography and phonology in Sidaamu Afoo (Sidamo)." ''Journal of Ethiopian Studies'' 37.1 (2004): 41–56. *Yri, Kjell Magne. "A Contribution to the Understanding of Metathesis and Assimilation in Sidaamu Afó." Lunde forlag. Oslo (1990). *Yri, Kjell Magne. "Decategorialization of Nouns as Postpositions in Sidaamu? afo and Amharic." ''Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon II'': Oslo-Göteborg Cooperation fourth-5 November 2005 2 (2006): 116. *Yri, Kjell Magne. "The singulative in Sidaamu Afó." ''Folia Orientalia'' 45 (2006): 157–67. *Yri, Kjell Magne. "La producción de alfabetos como guerra de liberación." ''Discurso, sociedad y lenguaje: una anamorfósis en el nuevo milenio''. Lincom Europa, 2002. *Yri, Kjell Magne. "Recreating religion. The translation of central religious terms in the light of a cognitive approach to semantics." In ''The Bible through metaphor and translation. A cognitive semantic perspective'', edited by Kurt Feyaerts (2003): 187–203. (Religion and Discourse, ed. by James M.M. Francis, vol. 15.) Oxford: Peter Lang. *Yri, Kjell Magne. "The Phonology of" Sidaamu Afii Jirte": Implications for the Orthography of Sidaama." ''Journal of Ethiopian Studies'' 44 (2011): 149-161. *Yri, Kjell Magne. "School grammars with everyday vocabulary: suggestion for a culture specific approach, with sidaamu afoo as an example." Oslo Studies in Language 8.1 (2017). *Yri, Kjell Magne. "Cleft sentences in Amharic, with special reference to reference." ''Current issues in the analysis of Semitic grammar and lexicon'' 56.3 (2005): 41. *Yri, Kjell Magne. "A Learner's Grammar of Beja (East Sudan)." (2012): 471–474.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yri, Kjell Magne 1943 births Living people People from Hareid 20th-century Norwegian Lutheran clergy Linguists from Norway Norwegian translators Translators of the Bible into Cushitic languages MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society alumni University of Oslo alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian expatriates in Ethiopia People from Nittedal Lutheran biblical scholars